Randomness: Why do people try and bond with complaints about kids? I was on the train going into NYC and the woman next to me sees Leela (asleep in my carrier) and goes on about how lucky I am that she is asleep and I bet she is a terrible sleeper at home. I say, no, she's great. And then the woman goes on about how if this one is easy than my next baby will be a nightmare because that is how these things work. And then goes on and on about how she never wanted kids because they suck so much.

Thanks lady.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Ha, I wouldn't say heartbreaking, just really sucky. For about a month now, K and I have been a bit more positive about the whole sleep issue. It's funny because the sleep has been less/worse but now it seems that we can really see her getting older and the light at the end of the tunnel. She is one seriously fun, smart baby so we remind ourselves how lucky we are that she is happy and healthy. When things happen like Ada's death it serves as an even graver reminder.

On a lighter note, we too wanted a "cool" birthdate. I'd hoped for 11/11/11. Bean had her own plans though, bypassing Halloween, the 11th, grandad's birthday, Thanksgiving, Bonfire Night...to find a day just for her. :)

tofulish! i was just thinking about something while looking at the birthday list thread. mr. bird is kind of obsessed with having a "good" birth date... like, he finds certain number combos really appealing. tzipi's bday is 02.21.2010 and he loves it 'cause it's all 0s, 1s and 2s. so now of course he's trying to make sure (how, exactly, i don't know) that new bb has an equally matching good date. and i just realized that he would think leela's birth date is perfect 'cause it's 11.02.2011. he was really gunning for 10.20.2012 but that's passed, so now he wants me to wait for 11.02.2012, or even better, december. yes, i'm totally willing to hold this baby in for an extra month for your weird number obsession.

haha.. omg, i just told him leela's birthdate and he swore under his breath and said he wished we'd had this baby last year. he's such a nerd.

OMG, my in-laws are like that -- they told me it would be great if I got induced (standard induction date in the UK is 10 days after the EDD) because then Beetroot's birthday would be a good number. Their first grandchild was 20.07.2007 and they were over the friggin' moon and have to tell everybody (even when the kid IS NOT THERE) like it's something wonderful and amazing.

I was hoping for a 10/11/12 bday for bebe E... guess he didnt want that. And then 10/17/12 was a nice one too (MIL's bday and Eli's godmother-to-be's mom's death anniv.)... that one almost worked but contractions never increased or did much. Now I'm 2 days past and wondering what other day would be nice lol

_________________~SARAH~

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.”

I dreamed last night that I ran into CrabbyCrafter at the grocery store, and Raygold had to use the potty, so I offered to watch Beetroot while crabby took him. And I had a backpack full of exciting stuff like stickers and crayons, but Beetroot was not impressed and ran away from me into the bathroom to find Raygold. Not a super eventful dream, but I remember being sad that Beetroot did not find me fun.

I dreamed last night that I ran into CrabbyCrafter at the grocery store, and Raygold had to use the potty, so I offered to watch Beetroot while crabby took him. And I had a backpack full of exciting stuff like stickers and crayons, but Beetroot was not impressed and ran away from me into the bathroom to find Raygold. Not a super eventful dream, but I remember being sad that Beetroot did not find me fun.

Tee hee! I wouldn't take it personally. Beetroot has been running away from people as soon as he could run. I would be checking out at the grocery store and he'd climb out of the cart and I'd have him pinned with my body against the check-out counter and he would be trying to wiggle away and I'd have to grab his hand and then I didn't have a free hand to pay the cashier. Okay, that only happened once or twice (and I never went shopping alone without a leash again), but you get the idea. ;D Your dream is startlingly spot-on!

- Audrey, when are you in SD? We should hang out!! We're in Normal Heights. Violet thinks older kids are the bomb.

- RE the zoo thing, I kind of struggle with this. OK, I'll confess: we go to zoos. I don't like them, ethically, but I do like that it's a toddler friendly outdoor space with stuff to look at where nobody flips out if my kid behaves like a kid. If I found a good nearby vegan-friendlier alternative that offered some of that, I would. I'm kind of struggling with this because I don't know what to suggest for vegan mom and kid meetups except parks, but it takes a lot of exhausting policing right now with playgrounds - Violet can climb well enough to get herself into a lot of trouble (at playgroup the other day she ended up getting wedged face first down a slide before I could get there, with a 3 year old dullard trying to slide down the slide right after her and pushing on her. I had to run to the outlet end of the slide and extract her..) Disneyland is too far away for a day trip and expensive, Legoland is a little closer but doesn't sound all that toddler-friendly, nor does Knott's, the nearest animal sanctuary is over an hour and a half away (the vegan group here did a road trip to it a while back, but it was just so faaaaar).. Seaworld is worse than the zoo and safari park.. There's the beach, but sand + young toddler isn't a great combo either.. We went pumpkin picking but they have animals in cages there too for a little petting zoo, which of course V loved (I didn't know it was there ahead of time and we were with a nonvegan group). I mean.. it just seems like there's no easy equivalent. We like nature hikes, and we should do more of that, and of course v LOVES bike rides, but I kind of like the nice paved, toddler-friendly infrastructure as well. Most of the hiking/mountain biking around here is a little advanced for younger ones.

- Tofulish, have you looked into doing any contract type work? I ran into a mom in the park once who did occasional lawyering temp jobs, and had found a drop-in home daycare where she could drop her 6 mo old girl off on short notice. This allowed her to work once in a while, and still have a lot of SAHM time, but also earn some money and keep her skills up. I have another nonparent unemployed lawyer friend who is doing government contract work when she can get it. I realize there are a lot of lawyers in New York these days who are probably looking for work (ever since my law firm dissolved! ;) ), but there might be something!

- I have policed food pretty carefully so far, but I do wish that playgroups and such revolved a lot less around food. Part of me really just hates the snack-intensive toddler culture.

GAAHHHHH! I went to a Wildlife Center Hay Ride bc I thought it wouldn't have captive animals, and the hayride didn't and was superfun. The captive animals were right there though, and the other moms took their kids by them, so I caught a glimpse of beautiful foxes in a tiny enclosure and a big redtail hawk in a cage that was far too small. It made me sad and I wonder how people can see that and not think there is something wrong with it.

annak wrote:

Tofulish, have you looked into doing any contract type work? I ran into a mom in the park once who did occasional lawyering temp jobs, and had found a drop-in home daycare where she could drop her 6 mo old girl off on short notice. This allowed her to work once in a while, and still have a lot of SAHM time, but also earn some money and keep her skills up. I have another nonparent unemployed lawyer friend who is doing government contract work when she can get it. I realize there are a lot of lawyers in New York these days who are probably looking for work (ever since my law firm dissolved! ;) ), but there might be something!

- I have policed food pretty carefully so far, but I do wish that playgroups and such revolved a lot less around food. Part of me really just hates the snack-intensive toddler culture.

If you have any ideas as to how to do contract stuff, I'd love to hear them! I always hear of contract stuff that is - we want you to review 10,000 documents in the next 4 months, and that normally would mean driving to CT or into NY to spend 60hrs a week reviewing documents. I listed with Axiom for in-house temporary placements but haven't heard anything from them,

And yes! Everyone brings snacks to everything! We've been going on the coolest nature hikes with our babywearing group and they are SO MUCH FUN! We eat first, but everyone brings sandwiches, trail mix, fruit etc and the kids just all tuck in. Its like a portable baby buffet. Most of them know I'm vegan so they ask first (they are so nice!) but I have decided not to care too much about incidental dairy. I am hovering over her to stop her eating rocks and dogs and dirt and poo, and I do my best to keep her vegan, but I'm not going to ask to read the package label or tear something out of her hand. Honestly, I wish she were a picky toddler at those times. She will eat ANYTHING.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Anybody else have the post-partum weepies? Not like PPD, but feeling good about life in general but crying over the slightiest thing? I cried profusely over everything for the first six weeks post partum but hadn't cried about anything in a few weeks and was feeling emotionally pretty stable and then today I failed a recertification test at work - embarrassing yes, but not the end of the world - I burst into uncontrollable tears. They would not stop. I am blaming this on post-partum hormones. So my question is how long after you gave birth were your emotions a out of whack? I am 15 weeks out and would have thought things would be back to normal by now.

I cried easily during my pregnancy and cried about a lot at the beginning with the baby, mostly over lactation related things. I still cry now at 9 months, but I was a crier before (though not as bad as I used to be) and I think my crying is back to normal.

Oi. Shorter days and unseemly amounts of rain, coupled with our ongoing sleep deprivation woes...then finding out that I'm going to miss my sister's marriage proposal (just like I missed the other sister's) because we live far away with a small child who I can't pick up and haul across the ocean..... I feel some days like I'm on the edge of this abyss of apathy with only Freya keeping me from falling. I.need.more.sleep.baby.